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Suspension is a common practice in the workplace for being in violation of an organization's policy, or major breaches of policy. Work suspensions occur when a business manager or supervisor deems an action of an employee, whether intentional or unintentional, to be a violation of policy that should result in a course of punishment, and when the employee's absence during the suspension period does not affect the company. This form of action hurts the employee because s/he will have no hours of work during the suspended period and therefore will not get paid, unless the suspension is with pay, or is challenged and subsequently overturned. Some jobs, which pay on salary, may have paid suspensions, in which the affected worker will be prevented from coming to work but will still receive pay. Generally, suspensions are deemed most effective if the affected worker remains unpaid. Suspensions are usually given after other means of counseling statements have been exhausted, but some violations may result in immediate suspension. Suspensions are tracked, and any number of them, even one may prevent one from receiving raises, bonuses or promotions, or could cause dismissal from the company.

Suspension on full pay can also be used when an employee needs to be removed from the workplace to avoid prejudicing an investigation. This is used not as a punishment, but in the employer's best interest. For example, a police officer who shoots a person while on duty will be given a suspension with pay during the investigation, not to punish, but to enable the department to carry out its investigation.

Suspension is a punishment in sport where players are banned from playing a certain number of future games. These suspensions may be issued for severe infractions of the rules of play (such as personal fouls), excessive technical, or flagrant fouls for the duration of a season, fights during the course of the game in which the player was a part of the wrongdoing, or misconduct off the field (such as illegal or banned substance use).

Generally, an athlete who is suspended must forfeit his pay during the course of the suspension, and depending on the team's or league's rules, may not be permitted to don his uniform or be present with the team during the course of play, which often includes attending games in the stands as a typical spectator would.

In academia, suspension (also known as temporary exclusion) is a mandatory leave assigned to a student as a form of punishment that can last anywhere from one day to several weeks, during which time the student is not allowed to attend regular school lessons. The student's parents or guardians are usually notified as to the reason for and the duration of the suspension. Sometimes students have to complete work during their suspensions for which they will receive no credit. Also, upon returning to school, it is often mandatory that the student, his/her parents/guardians, and a school administrator have a meeting to discuss and evaluate the matter. If the suspension is related to the symptoms of a disability or the student is receiving special education or mental health services, students may be required to consult their case manager, counselor, or school psychologist before and/or after the suspension. In some schools, this meeting is prior to the suspension.[1] Applications to some colleges ask the student whether or not they have ever been suspended. In some places in the United States, a suspension is noted on one's transcript. However, other places do not report suspensions or are expressly forbidden from doing so under state law. Students who breach a suspension (attend the school while suspended) may be arrested for, and charged with trespassing. This could result in an extension of suspension, community service, and sometimes jail time. Students who continue to breach a suspension could be expelled and sentenced to longer, more severe punishments. Students are also not allowed to attend after school activities (such as proms, sporting events, etc.) while suspended from school.

On-Campus suspension (OCS), sometimes known as "in-house/school suspension", "internal exclusion/isolation", and by some Florida schools as "School Center for Special Instruction",[2] is an alternative setting that removes students from the classroom for a period of time, while requiring students to attend school and complete their work. This form of punishment is often chosen because it provides supervision and structure to the students' days, whereas a student who is given an off-campus suspension receives essentially an unscheduled holiday, as off-campus suspension is widely considered to be nothing more than a pleasant reward to most students, instead of the punishment that it is intended to be, and also gives students more of a reason to misbehave on purpose, to those who would prefer to be suspended out of school, rather than being kept in school. Generally, a student assigned to on-campus suspension spends the entire school day in the designated OCS location, completes work submitted in advance by the student's teachers, and is monitored by school staff.[3] One variation of in-school suspension requires the student to arrive at school at a designated time on a Saturday to serve out their punishment, rather than miss class time during the week.[4] This type of punishment is commonly referred to as "Saturday School", but it may go under other names as well. The name "Saturday School" is also used to indicate detention, a less serious punishment. If a student fails to show up at Saturday School, it might result in a more serious punishment being given to the student.

Suspension rates have more than doubled over the past three decades, before 2012, across all grade levels.[5] It has been considered by the Department of Education that black students are 3 1/2 times as likely to be suspended or expelled as their white peers.[6] It was found The Office for Civil Rights that 1 in 5 African American boys received an out-of-school suspension during the 2009–10 academic year, compared with about 1 in 14 white boys.[5] However, controlling for socioeconomic differences and family resources decreases the difference in expulsion or suspension between black and white children by only half. Indicators of wealth, after controlling for all other factors, had statistically significant associations with all outcomes except a child's suspension or expulsion from school.[7] Suspension has received a number of criticism, such as by Daniel Losen, an associate for the Civil Rights Project at UCLA: "[Suspension] makes no sense, because students are losing class time." English teacher Nick McDaniels said, "We know suspension usually doesn't work for the suspended student."[5]

In Roman Catholic canon law, the censure of suspension prohibits certain acts by a cleric, whether the acts are of a religious character deriving from his ordination ("acts of the power of orders") or are exercises of his power of governance or of rights and functions attached to the office he holds.[8]

This censure is automatically applied to a cleric who uses physical violence against a bishop,[9] a deacon who attempts to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass or a priest who, though not empowered to grant sacramental absolution attempts to do so or who hears sacramental confession,[10] a cleric who celebrates a sacrament through simony,[11] and on a person who receives ordination illicitly.[12]

The censure of suspension (along with other punishments) is to be inflicted also on a cleric who openly lives in violation of chastity[13] and on any priest who "in the act, on the occasion, or under the pretext of confession" solicits a penitent to a sexual sin.[14] Suspension is incurred automatically by any cleric who falsely denounces a priest of having committed this delict.[15]